


pieces off the board

by Mertiya



Series: antipositional play [1]
Category: Homestuck
Genre: Adorable, Alternate Universe, Cute, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/M, Fluff, Healing, Hurt/Comfort, Post-Game(s)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-04-28
Updated: 2012-04-28
Packaged: 2017-11-04 11:00:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,612
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/393090
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mertiya/pseuds/Mertiya
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The Prospitian Monarch has killed the Sovereign Slayer, and the kids have won the game.  Now PM tries to make her way in the new world, and finds solace from her emotional scars in a very unlikely place.</p>
            </blockquote>





	pieces off the board

**Author's Note:**

> This is such a sappy, sugary, fluffy, silly piece. I just suddenly wanted to cut the poor Parcel Mistress a break, and I'm also kind of a sucker for Jack, particularly in his Slick incarnation, so I felt like I needed to throw this together. This couple needs more love!

            The day you took off the ring was the happiest day of your life.  Wearing it was a blinding burst of rage that burned and hurt you inside and you thought that maybe your soul would burn all away.

            You don’t think you will ever forget the moment the human girl stood in front of you and told you that it was over, and you could take the ring off now.  You didn’t believe her at first.  It was funny.  There was water all over your face, and there was something red all over your hands, but you couldn’t remember what it was from.  The human girl didn’t seem to know what to say, but that was okay, because you didn’t know what to say either, but somehow you managed to slip the ring off your finger, and you let it drop to the ground.  It made a funny noise and rolled over to something black on the ground.  You didn’t want to look at the black thing.  It was all in pieces and covered in red.

            The world feels all new these days.  Well, that’s probably partly because it actually _is_ new.  The human children built it themselves, with a little help from the trolls, whom you met recently.  They have grey skin and tend to be rude, but they mean well.  But, even if the world hadn’t just been created, you think it would feel new.

            You’re constantly surprised and excited that you’re alive.  You go for long walks outside, all the time, every day.  Sometimes you get up before the sun rises and watch it rise.  You always feel so painful inside, but the pain is a good kind of pain, not a bad kind of pain.  Sometimes you find yourself crying, because it hurts.  Because you miss all your old friends, and because you keep finding bits of yourself that have been broken, and you’re not sure they can be mended.

            You’ve started delivering mail again.  First you delivered a get-well note from you to WV, who was still in bed at that point.  He was very happy with it!  Then he asked you to get him some chalk, so you delivered that to him as well, and the two of you spent several hours drawing all over the room he’s in.  Rose came in and pretended to scold you for it, but you could tell she was not actually annoyed.  You like Rose (even though she was a Dersite princess), so you are very happy when you convince the green-blooded troll to let you deliver a love note from her to Rose.  Rose is very happy too!

            One day, you are walking down a stone bridge that goes over the river.  It is a very bright day out, and you are feeling all broken inside again, so you think that you will stop and look over the railing and watch the river, because it makes everything feel less broken, when you find that there is someone already there.  At first, you don’t know who it is, except that he has a black carapace (which makes you somewhat suspicious, despite your experiences with WV) and a lot of shiny metal bits stuck onto him.  He’s leaning over the railing.  You hope he won’t mind sharing the railing with you, so you come up behind him, and he turns around really suddenly and pulls out a knife.

            STRIFE!  You jump back and look around for something to threaten him with, because you have just recognized him, and you did not know there was so much fear and hatred left inside you.  But when he sees you, he slowly lowers the knife and says, “Sorry, doll.  You shouldn’t sneak up on a guy like that.”

            You don’t know what to say to that.  You don’t know how he can be alive, because you chopped—and you hacked—and when you cut through his finger, the ring was gone—and he was—

            “It’s okay, I’m reformed,” he says with a laugh.  “Sort of, anyway.  No point in organized crime these days.”

            You don’t understand what he’s saying.

            “You’re not much of a talker, are you?” he asks, and he peers closer at you, and then he steps back.  “Fuck, you’re the white broad who gave the other me the kiss off, aren’t you?  I was there; you probably didn’t see me.”

            The other him?  Now you start to understand.  This _is_ Jack Noir, and it isn’t.  This is him from one of the other two sessions, the trolls’ or the other kids’.  He puts the knife down, and you approach him warily and nod.

            “I just want to watch the river,” you say.

            “Be my guest,” he says, moving aside.  He doesn’t say anything else, and he gives you plenty of space, which you appreciate.  You appreciate that a lot.

            When you come by the next day, he’s there again, but you have a lot of parcels to deliver, so you don’t stop.  He gives you a sort of companionable nod, which you are too startled to return.  When you tell WV about it, he smiles and tells you that actually, that version of the archagent isn’t called Jack Noir anymore, but Spades Slick.  That makes you feel better.  You can think of him as a different person, even though you know the SS comes from Sovereign Slayer.  WV, who is in a talkative mood, tells you that nobody knows what to make of Slick, who is apparently the only one of the carapaces who made it out of the troll’s session alive.  He killed the Black Queen in their session, and somehow that ended up destroying the universe.

            He seems to have become less stabby lately, at least around a few people.  Sometimes he has dinner with Karkat and there isn’t noticeable amounts of blood on either of them afterwards.

            Spades Slick seems to enjoy the places you enjoy.  About a week later, you find him sitting on your favorite park bench, and you don’t know how to ask him to get up and go away, but when he sees you, he kind of moves aside, and you don’t like to be rude, so you sit on the bench with him.

            “I like it here,” you say, and he nods and asks if you want him to leave.  You have to admit, you did, except after he says that, you decide that actually, you don’t.  It gets lonely out here by yourself, and he doesn’t _really_ look like Jack Noir anymore.  Certainly not the Jack Noir who murdered all your friends and nearly killed WV and was probably completely crazy from all the prototyping anyways.  He doesn’t try to talk to you or make you feel better, and that’s nice.  Restful.

            It starts to be a thing.  You run across him in funny places and say a few things and just watch the world together.  You start to get the sense maybe he is doing the same that you are, even though you are not sure what that is.  You realize that you kind of remember him being—there.  When—that—happened.  But he never mentions it after the first day, which you’re grateful for.  You still don’t really like to think about it, although it doesn’t bother you so much anymore.  It’s not that it bothers you that he was dead, or even that you killed him.  It’s more that you lost yourself in red and black and when you came to, you were holding a bloody sword over pieces of a body.  You don’t want that to happen ever again, but the ring is safely gone.  It should be okay.

            One day he asks if you want to get a cup of coffee.  You say no, very quickly, and he shrugs.  Only the next day, you ask him if _he’d_ like to get a cup of coffee, and he says sure, why not.

            It’s a little weird to be getting coffee with him, and you are sure you are getting some weird looks.  On the other hand, he _is_ part robot, and there aren’t a lot of carapaces around anymore, so you are probably unusual.

            “You’re pretty fucking good with a sword,” he tells you.

            Ever since it happened, you haven’t liked people telling you things like that.  You haven’t wanted to be reminded of it, but you like the way he says it.  It’s raw and admiring and almost a little wistful, and you smile and say thank you and that you have heard he is quite a good hand with a knife.  All in all, it is a very nice cup of coffee.

            The next day you make a special delivery of flowers to yourself from him.  Then you deliver yourself to the park bench, where you find him.  You tactfully don’t mention that Jade was a _little_ upset with the knife that somebody took to her garden, or that the flowers got a little bruised from being stuffed into a parcel.  Instead you sit next to him and say that you have a special delivery for him.

            Spades looks at you and says, “Well, doll, where is it?” because you aren’t holding anything.

            You lean forward and kiss him, carapaces clanking together, and he doesn’t even use his teeth in the kiss (which you were a little afraid of after hearing a few things from WV about Dersite romantic habits).

            You don’t care anymore about who he was or who you were.  You just know that both of you are broken, sharp edges in funny places, but together maybe you can put yourselves back together.


End file.
